SMART — Sperm Motility Activating Rescue Technology

SMART is the technique used to activate motility in testicular sperm cells acquired through biopsy procedures or in cases of severe sperm pathology.

The testicular sperm cells acquired from biopsy or frozen (and thawed) tissue are ordinarily immotile. This sets an extra task for the reproductive specialists needing to spot viable and eligible for further implantation cells from the dead cells. In order to do so, MAMA Clinic specialists use pharmacological stimulation with a particular medium containing biologic activator known as Theophillyne (or dimethylxanthine).

Theophillyne is a naturally originating substance somewhat similar in its’ characteristics to caffeine, is used for a wide range of medical therapy causes. It generally acts as a multipurpose inhibitor and activator. As the essential additive to sperm suspension in SMART technology, it inhibits the sperm phosphodiesterase activity, resulting in elevation of complementary adenosine monophosphate levels in spermatozoa. In other words, Theophilline enhances sperm function including motility as part of it, therefore allowing reproductive specialists to differentiate live sperm cells which were temporarily immotile due to freezing or from dead ones.

MAMA Clinic was the first reproductive medical center in Russia to adopt and include into clinical practice the biologic sperm activation technology. SMART has proven to increase the efficiency of IVF protocols significantly even when severe male infertility conditions are detected.